The invention relates to a method for machining a workpiece in a numerically controlled machine tool with an optimized machining time.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
The machining of a workpiece in a machine tool is described by a so-called parts program or NC program. Such an NC program may consist, for example, of drilling a number of holes in a workpiece at a particular spacing.
In the production of workpieces, the machining time required is an important economic factor. In many areas, particularly for producing complex workpieces in large quantities, such as in the automotive or aerospace industry, it is attempted to minimize the machining time so that more workpieces can be fabricated on a machine tool in a shorter time.
Major machine builders or manufacturers have specialist departments engaged in “optimizing a parts program in respect of machining time”. This optimizing takes place manually. Manually means that e.g. axis positions s(t) and axis speeds v(t) of all the moved axes are plotted over time during execution of a machining program, specialists analyze these s(t) and/or v(t) plots and relate them to the corresponding point in the parts program in order to be able to carry out local improvements. That point in the parts program is then modified and/or machine parameters affecting the properties of the point to be optimized are changed with the aim of achieving a shorter machining time.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved method for machining a workpiece in a numerically controlled machine tool to obviate prior art shortcomings and to automatically optimize the machining time.